CAMELINA SATIVA

One of the oldest heritage seeds known to man.

Camelina seed was found in the stomach of Tollund man, a 4^th century b.c.  mummy recovered from a peat bog in Denmark (Glob 1969). Anthropologists postulate that the man’s last meal had been a soup made from vegetables and seeds including barley, linseed, Camelina, knotweed, bristle grass, and chamomile.

 

 Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz, (Brassicaceae), historically named; gold of pleasure    and false flax. It can be sown in fall or spring.

 

     This flexible crop has been cultivated in Europe since the Bronze Age. There are French, German, Italian and Polish varieties. The Romans used camelina oil for massage, lamp fuel, and cooking oil.  The meal or cake was used as flour, fertilizer or livestock feed. Camelina, germinates and emerges  when planted in late fall or in the early spring, well before cereal grains. Early emergence benefits non-irrigated or dryland production, utilizes spring moisture and crowds out the weeds with it’s broadleaf properties.

            

             Growing  interest in oil crops for sustainable biofuel production, has brought Camelina to the general publics awareness recently as the United States Navy and Air-Force has begun testing the fuel made from Camelina oil in their  fighter jets. Commercial Airlines have also requested millions of gallons of biofuel made specifically from Camelina in order to lessen it’s pollution footprint on our friendly skies.

Camelina  is quickly becoming the primo seed oil crop to grow, due to it’s low input costs, production costs, harvest costs, and yield.

Camelina sativa was not always the highest yielding oilseed crop but it was the most economical crop to produce due to minimal input requirements, Oil content is between 38-45%.

Wheat grown following Camelina has seen a 15% increase in yield and less disease and infestations compared to mono cropping or other rotations.

SEED RATE:

Camelina is sown at 4-6 lbs. per acre. Using a brillion type seeder, or broadcast and  cultipacked when spring planted. Fall plantings have been successful with broadcasting on tilled soil, and allowing rainfall and morning dew to germinate, without rolling or cultipacking.

HARVEST

Camelina is harvested with a Combine, and yields approx. 2,000 lbs. per acre. It’s high quality oil content produces 65 gallons per acre, leaving 1,500 lbs. of high protein omega 3 livestock feed.

 

 

 

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